Villa Torlonia, on Via Nomentana, hosts a building that seems to belong to a fairy tale; it is called Casina delle Civette (“little home of the little owls”), in honor of the animal that the Prince of Torlonia loved most. These nocturnal hawks really are at home in this enchanted place: if you sharpen your sight, you may see them as an almost obsessively recurring theme of the building’s decorations and furniture. It is hard to place the house precisely in an architectural category; it is rather an eclectic mix of styles, from Gothic to Liberty. If you are still looking for that enchanted house – where all of us have set our childhood games at least once – come check it out!
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